


Quick! Hide the Baby!

by BluBooThalassophile



Series: HfaB Universe [47]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Black Lightning (TV), DCU, Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chaos, Disasters, Family, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Gen, Humor, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2019-10-24 21:57:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17712332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluBooThalassophile/pseuds/BluBooThalassophile
Summary: It was just touring colleges, investigating a meta-human smuggling ring on the side, it was not blowing up Metropolis!





	1. Quick! Hide the Baby!

**Author's Note:**

> This story is going to be a side project, slowly worked on, but it is all plotted out, and has been for quite some time. I have been aching to share this since Rock Meet Bottom so I do hope you all enjoy!

Okay, so stranger shit had been known to happen in the Wayne household, and he was talking off their fucking rockers, send them to the asylum, level crazy. However, in a house of world class escape artists, he very seriously doubted there was a prison, on or off, earth which they couldn’t bust out of. It was a defining trait to be a Bat, to be… insanity hyped up on caffeine, caught by mom in this horribly awkward situation, whilst hiding an infant behind your back; that shit was normal; wasn’t it!?

Duke didn’t know as he struggled to hold onto the baby, while Tim and Damian flanked him, and they smiled nervously at Cat who was peering at them suspiciously.

“What did you three do?” she asked levelly while she shut the fridge; it was eleven at night, a normal time for a Batfam member to be up, but it was inconvenient right now.

“Nothing,” he quickly supplied.

Tim and Damian nodded vigorously. Selina frowned as she walked over.

In the near four years since Duke had been adopted into the insanity, he had found with unwavering certainty the following:

  1. Alfred Pennyworth, and his daughter, MI6 (Julia Pennyworth), were most certainly divinities of some sort as they stoically embraced this madhouse.
  2. B was a functioning mute, and he was a pretty good, overprotective, helicopter dad, but a cool dad all the same.
  3. Selina was a goddess, and nothing got passed her; also, she was totally his mom, he was cool with that.
  4. Kate was a bitch, but cool.
  5. Dick was the hug monster.
  6. Kori was amazing, and a star in the darkness of the Batfam.
  7. Jason was family, despite protests, and Jay could and would kick their asses simultaneously if provoked.
  8. Cass could get away with murder and B would still think her perfect, the rest of them couldn’t get away with shit without getting the stink eye.
  9. Stephanie was the glitter loving, ask kicking, waffle queen of spoilers.
  10. Tim was a caffeine addict who suffered extreme sleep deprivation and could take over the world in less than an hour if provoked.
  11. David Zavimbe was a badass new element in the family, who could almost out swear Jason in different languages.
  12. He was middle child, and stuck as such, while seeking to keep the peace.
  13. Damian was a vegetarian, raging ball of animal loving right, and would totally stab you if you annoyed him, but would totally kick an enemies’ ass if they threatened anyone in his family.
  14. Alina; while totally adorable and a sweetheart, was proof B couldn’t keep it in his pants, and Selina was too good for B.
  15. Terry was Duck Dodgers.
  16. Lian was Jay’s honorary daughter.
  17. Helena could rob you blind, and get away with it, while she smiled sweetly at you.
  18. Mar'i was far too pure for them, and somehow, she was a Bat, he didn’t know how it was genetically possible for something so perfect to be a Bat, but she was.
  19. Thomas was King of Hide-N-Seek.
  20. B Jr didn’t understand gravity, nor fearing gravity.



These were the facts of life. Irrefutable in his mind, however, as he struggled to hold the baby behind his back and keep the smile up, he knew they were so dead when Cat found out.

“Uh-huh, where’s the body?” Cat asked, folding her arms as she lifted a brow and cocked her hip.

“Have we mentioned how wonderful you look mom?” Damian asked with cheer.

Selina’s eyes narrowed on them.

“Absolutely lovely, what did you do with your hair!?” Tim tried, nervously, whilst rubbing the back of his neck. Duke could feel the sweat rolling down his temple as he felt the nervous smile waver under the unwavering green eyes of his mom.

“Who’d you kill?” Selina asked flatly.

“NO ONE!” “Not Luthor, I mean, might’ve blown up his labs!” “Damian Did It!”

Both he and Damian snapped their attention to Tim. “Habit.”

The baby squealed, and they all paled as they nervously glanced over at Selina who was now blinking. The baby did it again.

“Shut up Lug!”

“We are so not naming him Lugh.” Duke snapped at Damian then.

“McGinnis is Irish, I see no qualms with the name I have selected,” Damian retorted. “Lugh was a King and Warrior.”

“Not happening!” Tim and he snapped.

“Please tell me you did not take after your father and abduct a baby?” Selina sighed.

“Is it abducting if it’s technically his kid!?” Duke asked, pulling the baby they had found around to be against his chest, the six month-ish old baby smiled at him, and Duke smiled back. Kid was kind of cute.

“ ** _Oh You Have Got To Be Fucking Me!?_** ” Selina sputtered and groaned as she dragged her hand through her mused curls. “Sit down, and gimme the damn kid!” she snapped as she walked forward.

Duke relinquished his hold on the ivory white baby to Selina’s grasp, and watched as his mom blandly look at the baby who was curiously assessing her. Duke hastily took a seat at the kitchen island.

“You have precisely two hours before B will be back, start talking,” Selina stated as she started pulling out the supplies to make the baby some formula. “And you were supposed to be touring colleges! Not getting into trouble,” Selina stated.

“We were!” he and Tim hastily assured.

“Besides, I’m going to Princeton, then Georgetown,” Duke defended. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life, and he would do it. It would work.

“Uh-huh,” Selina said blandly. “And how do you explain this cutie!? You are cute,” she added, looking at the baby, who laughed bubbily as he grabbed her pendant and sucked on it.

“Uh… that’s a long story,” Duke said nervously.

“You have two hours, start talking.”

"So we went to Metropolis, not to blow it up, but MTU is there and I did say I would tour colleges, Tim had a meeting with Luthor, and Dami... Dami? Why were you there?"

"Because someone needed to supervise."

"We had everything undercontrol!" he and Tim snapped.

"What. Were. You. Doing. In. Metropolis. Exactly.?" Selina grounded out pointedly.

"Uh... would you believe me if I said there was a record there I was after?" Duke offered nervously.

"We were hunting a meta-human smuggling ring which has deep ties with Luthor's old associates." Tim stated.

"Oh this is going to be good," Selina sighed. "Continue." It was in Selina's 'I dare you, do it, so I can say I told you so' voice.

"I feel like this is a trap," Duke stated.


	2. A Week Prior

“You have three colleges to tour with Mr. Peirce; remember to be on your best behavior,” Julia informed him, walking by and dropping his pack in his lap.

“I’m not actually going to school in Freeland or Metropolis,” he pointed out.

“Jefferson Peirce is very taken with you and has insisted that yu accompany the group he’s taking to tour colleges.” Selina supplied unhelpfully while she made a funny face at B Jr to get him to eat.

“Give it back!” a shrill voice screamed, Duke turned in time to see Terry and Helena come rolling into the kitchen.

“It’s Mine!” Terry shrieked.

“No it’s not!” Mar’i bellowed.

“Children!” Alfred’s voice sliced through the heated argument from the five year olds. “It belongs to me now,” Alfred held out his hand. Terry and Helena glared at one another as they unhanded the toy to Alfred; it was a ratty stuffed bear.

“I get that Mr. Peirce is taking a group but I don’t see why I have to be involved with it, I’m not an athlete!” Duke defended.

In his group of kids touring schools was Virgil Hawkins, a great basketball player; everyone was already speculating when he’d go pro. Naomi McDuffie, who was a tennis player along with being a member of Titans. David Zavimbe, an exchange student in Duke’s school and adopted member of the Bats, David was a complete badass at Rugby; B had kind of adopted him from the Congo after a terrible situation, but the adoption wasn’t official, merely informal because David was so close to being eighteen; Duke liked him well enough. Raquel Ervin; a human genius from Freeland and Jefferson Peirce’s ward; she was supposedly a gymnast, but Duke hadn’t actually ever met her. Along with Lorena Marquez who was King Arthur’s latest ward, but she was attempting to come back to the surface as Sub Diego was in general of two worlds since the incident; she apparently had swim team scholarships against other metas and aqua people.

Jefferson Peirce, a.k.a. Black Lightning was leading their group because Jefferson Peirce was running for Senate, he was a respected educator and activist, he was a man people were looking to become President, even Tim had charts predicting as much. He was also very involved with Equal Opportunity; and the NCAA. Jefferson was also very involved with the JL’s inner workings of protecting young protegees so as to not have identities spilled to the wrong parties. Duke got all that, he did, but his original plans of college touring with his dad; B; had been thwarted by Jefferson Peirce. Duke was not thrilled.

Apparently B and Jefferson hated each other’s guts; well, that wasn’t entirely true. They had respect for each other’s skills, but they did not respect each other as people. Jefferson also thought B adopted all of them as publicity stunts; so that had greatly lowered Duke’s opinion of Jefferson at the reasons for him and David going on this trip. David had actually wanted to go with the group, to get the ‘Normal American Experience’; Duke understood that, but Duke wanted to go with B.

Besides, if Jefferson ever bothered to come to Wayne Manor he’d see that this madhouse was a complete family, even as David uncomfortably shuffled into the morning breakfast.

“Good morning David! It is a most glorious morning!” Kori cheered as she floated in.

“Morning Kori!” Duke smiled; he liked Kori.

“So I got the numbers, and I’m looking at the projections now,” Tim said on the phone as he walked in, grabbing coffee. Duke switched it to toast when Tim looked away. “What do you mean it’s not lining up!?”

“This is ridiculous, why should Thomas and Zavimbe go but not I?” Damian demanded pushing B into the kitchen. Thomas squealed in delight with his arms up in the air as they rolled in. B had suffered a brutal; near crippling attack from Bane earlier this year, which was part of the reason Jefferson had succeeded in getting Duke in his group rather than touring with B. The partial paralysis was permanent, and B was officially retired from being the Bat. Dick had picked it up with Jason’s help, they rotated being the Bat to keep a sense of it going. The mantel of the Bat was a heavy burden; and B; while retired, was not out of being in charge, he ran the base with Alfred and Julia now. B sometimes had to use a wheelchair, mostly in the mornings and evenings, but for the most part got away with using a cane; and attended all of the JL meetings still; as the Bat. Though that was usually with the aid of one of them to hide B’s weakness.

“You are not eighteen.”

“That is irrelevant,” Damian dismissed.

“I’m not going to college with the Demon Brat,” Duke stated.

“Agreed,” David said taking his customary seat by Duke. Duke and David were not close, David hung around him a lot though because he apparently reminded David of his brother, Isaac. David didn’t talk much about his days before B, so Duke didn’t know if that reminder was a good or bad thing to be honest.

“What, no, the projects are on schedule, okay; where the hell is my coffee!?” Tim sputtered, spitting out the toast.

“You have to breakfast before you are permitted coffee, Master Timothy,” Alfred said primly.

“I don’t wanna go,” Terry announced.

“Me neither!” Helena cheered.

“You’re going, so go get dressed,” Julia ordered.

“No!” both the five year olds folded their arms before Julia grabbed them by their PJs and hauled them out of the kitchen.

“I’m heading up to Newark, Jason’s got a lead on the case,” Dick said.

“Jay?” Alina stumbled in yawning, rubbing her eyes. “Is he here?” she asked looking around.

“Uh… no, kiddo, he’s not,” Duke said uncomfortably as Alina clambered up the barstool beside him.

“Oh.”

“Jay is not keen on being here,” David muttered.

“To be fair he hasn’t ever been keen on being here,” Dick chuckled. “Love you Kori, see you guys when I get back!” Dick waved.

Duke chuckled as he continued eating his breakfast. He loved mornings like this with his family.

* * *

 

Tim walked into the hospital before his board meeting and paused as he signed into the ICU. It had been nearly eight months since the joint attack from Joker and Bane.

A lot had happened in Tim’s life, he would admit most of it was because of being a Bat. Rarely had that ever spilled over on his cover of being Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne though; the family had worked hard not to let it spill over. However, eight months, three weeks, five days and eighteen hours ago that had changed, as Marabunta, Bane and Joker had broken all the rules that had previously existed.

They had not coordinated an attack, merely struck simultaneously for maximum danger in a short period of time.

Last year Jason; on the anniversary of his death, which was exactly two weeks from today, been snatched with Alina by the Joker. Mere weeks after recovering them, Marabunta and then Bane had struck, and after the crippling blow from Joker, Marabunta’s and Bane’s blow had just about killed them.

After he finished signing into the hospital he took the visitor’s pass from the nurse; who knew his name by now, and walked the route towards the room he knew so well.

He walked into the room and blinked a few times seeing her sitting there, by the window, over looking the river, as listless as yesterday as her mother stood there humming and gently braiding her hair.

“Good morning Tim,” Tanya greeted him sadly.

“Good morning Mrs. Fox,” he smiled tightly. The guilt about what happened welled up as he stared at his girlfriend’s listless face. Bane had destroyed her.

It was still unclear as to what had happened; but it was around the time that Luke and B had found David Zavimbe.

What was known was that Bane had been involved; for that’s where most of B’s injuries had come from and that an enemy of Luke’s and David’s had traveled through Bane’s cartel to Gotham to attack. The group was called Marabunta, they had targeted the Fox’s and David almost exclusively, but also the Bat’s. Marabunta had abducted Tamara, Tiffany, Alina, Terry, Helena, Mar'i, Bruce Jr., and Thomas. Selina, Harley and Ivy had retaliated, and the streets had run with blood when Selina was on the hunt; though it was Jason who had done most the killing and hunting. Tim had helped Jason and Luke hunt, but they had not been fast enough.

Tiffany had insisted that Tamara had managed to help them escape for the most part, but as she was older, and larger than the small children, she and Tiffany had been stuck behind. Terry had lead them to Tamara and Tiffany though, but it was too late for Tamara. She had been overdosed with Bane’s newest batch of venom, and for all intents and purposes, she was brain dead, though her body still lived and moved. They were all looking into a way to reverse or cure Tamara’s fugue state, but so far there was nothing. Unless Raven miraculously came back from the dead, Tim had no solution.

“How are you this morning, beautiful?” he asked, kissing Tam’s cheek as he walked over to the vase of flowers, trading them out for the new ones he had brought. “I think we have had progress with the newest development of treatment, it’s going to involve some new drugs, but it will help regulate your body, maybe you’ll be able to leave the hospital! You’ll like that, wouldn’t you Tam? We’ll go to the Bahama’s or Tahiti,” he offered.

Tim stopped at the stricken look on Tanya’s face though.

“Timothy,” Tanya sighed. “I think we need to speak.”

“Sure, what’s up?” he asked.

“I… I know you love Tammy,” Tanya said softly. “But she’s, she wouldn’t want this, Tim.”

“What?”

“You are a sweet boy, but you’re young, and she… she wouldn’t want you wasting your life over her,” Tanya said.

“I…”

“I think, it’d be for the best, if you stopped seeing her, Tim,” Tanya said. “She’s never going to get better than she is now, and Lucius and I have been talking about our options. Home care, medical, basic care, or putting her into a home with people who can take care of her. Who understand what she’s been through and is going through. She would want you to carry on with your life,” Tanya said softly.

“But…” Tim started. “Wait a second! She’s MY girlfriend! And she’s going to get better! We’ll… she and I will… we’ll talk, you know, when she’s better!”

“Tim, there’s a very real possibility that this is as good as she gets, she will not recover.”

“She will! And when she does we’ll talk!” he insisted.

“Timothy!” Tanya sighed.

“I’m sorry, I have to go, I have a meeting!” he said as he heard his phone ringing and swiftly walked away. Tim wasn’t giving up on Tammy, she was a fighter, and if they had saved Tiff, they could find a way to save Tammy. He was certain that they could, he could do it if he had to do it all by himself.

Getting into his car he closed his eyes for a minute as he took a steadying breath before pulling on the Bluetooth and pulling out of the parking garage.

“It’s Timothy Drake-Wayne,” Tim said as he got patched into his meeting about the Lex Corp take over.

He didn’t want to think about Mrs. Fox’s talk right now. Truthfully, he had no idea what to do with his and Tam’s relationship. They had been together since he was seventeen, and it was precious. Kon and Bart had been here for him, as had Steph and Cass, but Tim just didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t keep dating a girl who’s mind was gone, but they were together and he could just leave her!

* * *

 

“Are you packed dear!?” her mom’s voice rang up the stairs as she finished throwing in her hoodie for the trip.

“All set!” she promised as she grabbed her bag and grinned as she jogged down the stairs.

“No running in the house!” her mom chided.

“Sorry!” she ducked under her mom’s outstretched arms.

“The earthling declares the rules of the house,” her dad chuckled.

“Obviously, someone needs to keep the house in one piece,” her mom snorted. “My baby! All grown up!” her mom sniffled.

“Mom!” Naomi rolled her eyes as she smiled. “I’m just touring the schools, nothing’s official,” she said.

She had a lot of schools she wanted to see; and to her mother’s horror they were all on the east coast. Naomi wanted to go to the east coast though, it’d be closer to the Justice League, and the Young Justice branches. She’d have more access to Superman; who she had talked to last summer.

“All grown up! Saving the world!” her dad said with pride. Greg McDuffie, a former Rannian soldier, had come to Earth and fallen in love with her mom, an Earthling, Jen McDuffie. They had adopted her soon after her dad had found her in space, and they were her everything. Her dad had found her at a multiverse tear, but until recently she hadn’t known she was from a different Earth or endowed with godlike powers. That was a recent development over the last few years.

“Anissa should be here soon, you listen to Mr. Pierce, and behave,” her mom warned her.

“Alright,” she nodded, ducking her mom’s finger.

“I mean it Naomi,” Jen warned her.

“I will be on my very best behavior!” she promised.

“You better,” her mom warned. Jen McDuffie, despite being the only completely normal human in the house, was the most intimidating woman on the planet. Naomi dropped her bag as they sat down for breakfast. It was a nice morning for her.

* * *

 

Virgil Ovid Hawkins was listening to the latest Beyoncé track; without shame. He was a huge fan of hers; loved just about every song she had ever sung; packing up for his trip with Jefferson Pierce. The college tour was a huge deal, and his love for basketball was going to pay off for it was his ticket to college. His dad couldn’t afford to pay for his college, and Sharon was already working three jobs to pay for hers. Virgil picked up a picture of him and Richie; the his best friend for forever; was gunned down last year by a gangbanger initiation into Bang Baby. If it wasn’t for Mr. Pierce, Virgil knew he’d have gone off the deep end, and just electrocuted everyone in that gang to death without hesitation. Mr. Peirce had saved his soul and salvaged his future.

Virgil had never been a member of the Justice League or Titans or the Young Justice group, he was just a kid, with really cool powers, who was trying to make his streets a little safer. It was because of Green Light he even had these powers.

Someone had drugged him, thinking it’d be funny to stick him with a needle because of his fear of shots as a kid, and he’d been at school and in the second grade. The results were permanent alterations to his genetic code because of Dark Mater in the air and because of how Dr. Lynn Stewart had saved him. For a long time, the powers had been dormant, until puberty. Since then he was always emitting a low pulse of electromagnetic energy which had changed and grown as he learned to control it; through trial and error with Richie’s help.

“Miss ya, man,” he said to the photo before setting it aside and picking up his duffle.

“Virgil, Mr. Pierce is here!” his dad called up the stairs.

“Coming!” he shouted as he jogged down the stairs.

“There he is! Mr. Big Shot!” his sister teased as she ruffled his hair.

“Watch the hair!” he swatted at her hands as he ducked her reach, gave his dad a quick hug before trotting out of the house towards Mr. Peirce’s car. Jefferson Peirce was a step behind him.

“Are you ready for this Virgil?” Jefferson asked him.

“Yeah,” he grinned.

* * *

 

His eyes scanned over the readings on the project, McGinnis genetics had not been a perfect match, but some genetic tweaking and merging had created another fetus. Which had grown to a baby, now about six months in age. However, the readings on the accelerated genetics were fail, the child would continue progressing as it was.

Sighing in frustration he tossed the report aside and wondered what to do.

Disposing of the child and starting over was the best option for getting what they wanted but there did not appear to be a way to add growth acceleration into the genetics. He would have to reach out to Talia again, not a thought he relished with how things had ended between them.

Standing Lex walked towards the windows.

The Light was preparing, wheels were in motion.

Since Queen Bee’s sister’s attack on the Bats they had relaxed. Lady Marabunta had seen to delivering crippling blows to the Bats, but the fallout of that attack between himself and the League of Assassins had been a permanent fracture as Talia had left the Light’s council closing the League of Assassin’s and their resources off. However, Talia had perfected genetic tampering and age acceleration and he needed it. They could not move forward without a counter measures in place; particularly against the Bats.

New Krypton would be easy to neutralize, but a Bat was not. They were trouble, thought he had long since accept the best weapon against a Bat was another Bat.

He would have to find a way to accelerate growth.


	3. Different Worlds

David stood beside Duke at the airport as they looked for their party in Metropolis.

David had not been a Bat long, Bruce and Lucas finding him right after he had had to kill his little brother; a blooming warlord named Massacre, and it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that these people would find him, save him, pluck him out of the hell of war in the Congo, but not be able to do the same for his brother Isaac. Duke reminded him of Isaac. Isaac had been shy, loved American basketball and America, Isaac had always had the plans for them to escape the Congo, though his little brother’s plan was apparently to amass power through force and terror and take his freedom back at any and all costs. David had not recognized the monster Isaac had become.

Bruce and Lucas had made it better, given him a home.

He’d have stayed with Lucas but the attack of Lady Marabunta had left him feeling an intruder on tragedy to the second decent group of people to him. Before he could run Bruce had caught him and insisted that nothing that had happened was his fault and he had a future, and family here if he wanted it. David had reluctantly come to the Wayne home, only to be engulfed in the chaos which they thrived on and he felt… welcomed. Bruce and Selina were very welcoming, as were Julia and Alfred, the others were more or less friendly. Dick and Kori were most welcoming, while Jason was not welcoming (though David did not take it personally, Jason wasn’t particularly friendly by nature). It was a family, it was a family that had welcomed him; despite what he was; and they were people who were… kind, yes, kind, very kind, to him. David would admit he was becoming fond of them, but it was time he looked to his future, so Bruce was helping him. They were looking at colleges, and he had private tutors to catch up in his studies.

David wanted to study international law.

He wanted to work the system, to understand it, to bring the monsters who made his brother a monster to justice. He wanted to stop the pain.

As a Bat he learned how to confront the pain, but as a Wayne he had the opportunities to preemptively stop the pain before it struck. He would not let this opportunity be wasted; even if he was not fond of traveling with Jefferson Peirce.

David could find no fault in Jefferson Peirce, the man was decent people, but David was not fond of him because of the clear conflict between Jefferson and Bruce. Bruce was good people even if no one really saw it.

David knew that in his time in the Wayne household he was not a publicity stunt, he was not charity, he was not a pity case, and he was wanted, and he was safe with them. Jefferson had made it out like Bruce’s care for him was merely a stunt; a ploy to have the public seeing a rich, entitled, Jewish white-guy being a white savior. It wasn’t like that though, David had worked with people who used him, who used him and his brother, he knew when he was being used, the care Bruce and his family gave was real and genuine and it was… startling to David. Regardless though, David gravitated towards Duke, even now as they scanned the airport.

There was an athletic woman, who had fading red dye in her black hair, and sharp brown eyes holding a sign up as another athletic woman sauntered up. They shared a deep kiss, and he noted that Duke was walking that way, he finally managed to piece together the sign in the woman’s hand: Peirce College Tour.

“Hey, I’m Duke Thomas, this is my brother David Zavimbe,” Duke said walking up to the party. David tensed a bit as he looked at the others. There was gangly young man with dreads, and a medium height woman with short brown hair.

“We’re not brothers,” David immediately stated.

“I’m Anissa Pierce, and this is my girlfriend Grace Choi,” the dark athletic woman said with a bright smile. David nodded as he accepted her hand.

“I thought Bruce Wayne just adopted you,” the other man with dreads said.

“I am his ward, not his child,” David stressed. He couldn’t bear the idea of having another set of parents, and Bruce had respected that.

“We’re family,” Duke modified for him with a small smile.

“That’s cool, I suppose,” the other girl said. “Raquel Ervin,” she smiled as she offered him her hand. “And that’s Virgil Hawkins.”

“Right, you’re Jefferson Pierce's ward,” Duke said.

“I’m emancipated, I go to his school, I am not his ward,” Raquel said firmly.

“Raquel here is the leading gymnast in the state,” Anissa said. “She’s the ultimate superhero too.”

“That’s cool, sorry for the mix up,” Duke said.

“It’s fine, besides, I work with someone else, he’s my mentor, Peirce is sort of… the push for my future right now,” she said it carefully.

“I get that, B’s doing that for us,” Duke smiled as he clasped David’s shoulder. David offered a small smile to Duke in return.

“How is living with big grumpy?” Virgil asked.

“Fine,” David snapped defensively. He did not like how the world viewed Bruce or his family, it was his now and David wouldn’t tolerate it being badmouthed. Even if he could bear the idea of having more parents, or more siblings it was now his.

“B’s awesome, grumpy, but awesome,” Duke said casually.

“Sorry, I finally got my bag! Some guy tried to push me on the conveyor belt!” a new voice announced. David tensed until Duke grabbed his shoulder.

“It’s fine Naomi,” Anissa chuckled. “Dad’ll be here soon with the car, he texted me that he’s just looking for a place to park so we can load up.

“What about Lorena?” Virgil asked.

“Lorena is meeting us at the hotel as it is close to the pier and Arthur is dropping her off.”

“I thought she lived in Sub Diego,” Virgil said.

David sighed; this was going to be a very long trip.

* * *

 

Duke was a bit awestruck when she walked towards them. She was a short, curvy, athletic girl, about Cass’s height. Her hair was done up in many braids with various gold clips scattered about her hair style. Her eyes were bright, and even more highlighted by her smile. She was gorgeous.

He felt his palms getting sweaty, and heard his heart slamming painfully in his ears.

“Naomi McDuffie!” she smiled as she offered her hand to him.

“Thomas Duke, I mean, Duke Thomas!” he sputtered. “Sorry,” he smiled sheepishly then as he took her hand.

“Cool name, Duke,” she chuckled.

“I like it,” he admitted.

“So, I gotta ask, are ya a fan of the Duke?” she asked.

“‘Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway’,” he quoted John Wayne then. Duke had a secret love of John Wayne, he thought the guy was pretty cool for a wild cowboy. But anyone at home found out about his secret love of old westerns he’d deny it to death.

“Oh, so you’re not a fan of the other Duke?” Naomi questioned.

“I love Duke Ellington,” he admitted. “My mama named me for him,” he admitted.

“Sweet.”

“This is David Zavimbe,” Duke smiled as he introduced David then. Habit of having a zillion Waynes had him introducing everyone; who was thought of as family, as family. But David was obviously unsettled by that so Duke just decided to introduce him as David. He still wasn’t sure if David viewing him in a similar light to his brother was a good or bad thing since Duke couldn’t seem to find any information in B’s files about David. B had probably done that to deter him and his siblings from prying; not that it was going to work.

“Nice to meet you,” Naomi said as they walked after the group.

David nodded.

“So… first time out of your home city?” she asked.

“Nah,” Duke dismissed. Being a Bat had literally opened his world to beyond Gotham; and to intergalactic issues with international issues as well. It was a huge ass world out there. “You?”

“Unless we count the interdimensional hopping I did, and intergalactic space travel, then yes, first time I’m leaving home,” she said nervously. “My dad insisted I take this trip.”

“B too,” Duke muttered.

“You don’t want to?”

“Well…” he rubbed the back of his neck in nerves. “I already know what I want to do, and where I want to go,” he admitted.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’m going to Princeton, then Georgetown. I don’t want to be… too far,” he said uncertainly.

Bats, despite being emotionally distant as planets, were a close-knit family. Duke loved it. He liked playing video games with Tim, harassing Damian with loud jazz music, going to ballgames with Jason and the horde of toddlers, dancing with Cass and Steph, hanging out with Selina, baking with Alfred, and training with B. He loved it all; it was his, his family and he wasn’t ready, just yet, to part from that for a moment. He would admit he was being unnecessarily clingy, but after losing his family, he wasn’t ready to part from the Waynes any time soon.

“I get that,” Naomi nodded. “I can’t wait to leave though! And it’s a short flight no matter where I am!”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I want go to Columbus or NYU,” she grinned.

“Cool, cool,” he bobbed his head. Internally he smacked his forehead for being a dork and heard Jason’s tormenting laugh at his actions. Of all the dorky, stupid things to say and do!

“Princeton’s cool though,” she admitted.

“Jay liked it from what he told me,” Duke admitted. He had cornered Jay briefly to ask his brother’s opinions on colleges. Jason hadn’t been thrilled, but relented as he had been the only one other than B to actually have an interest in going to college. Duke had a brief impression that Jay had actually done college, but couldn’t get more information out of him.

“Big family?” Naomi asked.

Both he and David looked at each other then at her, before looking at a newsstand with the latest of their family’s tabloid exploits.

“You don’t… we’re Waynes,” Duke said.

Naomi’s jaw dropped then. “Wait! As in Bruce Wayne’s kids!?” she sputtered.

“Yeah, I’m that Duke Thomas,” he chuckled. “David, did you know Dick has a secret love affair with Zatanna or are we just supposed find out from their love child.”

“Tim’s tonguing that underwear model, the French one,” David said.

“I thought that was last week.”

“No, this week it’s a torrid affair on the private island in the Mediterranean.”

“Huh, oh, I’ve signed with a record label!” Duke snickered.

“I hate that trumpet,” David muttered. “I am in jail or going, again.”

“Damn, I thought they’d get over that.”

“Ha-ha,” Naomi muttered. “I didn’t recognize you guys,” she rolled her eyes.

“We poke fun at the weekly tabloids!” Duke grinned.

“Weekly tabloid bashing, Jay started it,” David informed her.

“That’s… horrid, and sounds fun!” she giggled.

“Loads, Alina’s got the best rips into the media.”

“Oh, B’s having another affair on Selina!” Duke grinned pointing to the business meeting photo between B and Jane Jetson.

“I tought Dick had the thing for redheads, not B,” David admitted.

“No, B chases anything with a skirt, wonder when Selina will neuter him,” Duke chuckled.

“She loves him.”

“My mama would never tolerate her man stepping out on her,” Naomi informed them primly.

“Selina would kill him, and Jay would bury the body if B ever actually step out on her,” Duke shrugged.

“Wow, the tabloids have your family all wrong then,” she chuckled.

“Very,” David smiled.

“So does B adopt you for love or for publicity stunts?” she asked.

“Love, obviously, B’s all heart,” Duke smiled.

“He sounds cool then,” Naomi said as she walked to toss her bag in the van.

“I like that one,” David decided. “First one who has accepted Bruce wanting us instead of using us to better his image.”

“Dude, the Wayne family image has been ruined for years, I blame Dick.”

“I blame Bruce,” David countered. Duke laughed as he nudged David’s shoulder, David nudged him back.

* * *

 

Tim was looking through Lex Corp files; he was acquiring part of it currently. Lex Luthor had started formulating plans to run for President and was selling his company. It was all going as Tim projected, and he was slowly acquiring Lex Corp and rebranding it to prevent Lex from reacquiring it when he lost the elections. Tim had already started setting things aside for funding Jefferson Peirce; though Peirce hadn’t yet announced his candidacy. Tim figured he had at least two elections before Luthor and Peirce would run against each other.

“We must go to Gotham!” a voice snapped as his office door was thrown open dramatically.

Tim yelped as he made a grab for the papers scattered on his desk and caught his coffee before it fell over. “We don’t have to do anything,” Tim grounded out as he glared at Damian then.

“We must, David and Duke are touring colleges and I have found information on our case. We can go under the cover of family meeting,” Damian said sitting across from him.

“What case?” Tim asked.

“Light, and mother’s whereabouts,” he said.

“What did you find?” Tim asked rubbing his brow. Since the Bane attack, he and Damian had been forced to get along and work together while they were wilding scrambling to piece together the organization working with Bane and coming after them. Damian had a successfully acquired a sample of Lady Marabunta’s DNA, though it had lead to nothing because of it’s cooruption. She was a meta though, but anything else was unknown.

“I have found a DNA match for Lady Marabunta, with a sixty-nine percent familiar match to Queen Bee, who is a member of the organization Light as well. I have found missing payment links between her and Luthor, and even payoffs to the League of Assassins,” he said pulling out his file.

“Did you tell B?”

“No, father is at physical therapy today with mom, and it did not seem appropriate given his weakened state.” Damian stated facts the family had all acknowledged. B would never be able to physically be the Bat, but Tim knew that B’s mind was sharp as ever and just as dangerous as his physical prowess had been.

“We aren’t going to Metropolis.” Tim sighed rubbing his brow.

“We must, and we have the perfect cover with Thomas and Zavimbe being there,” Damian insisted.

“You’re just jealous that they got to go on a college touring trip and you didn’t,” Tim pointed out tiredly as he started reading through the latest proposal for Green Energy.

“I am not!”

“Yes you are.”

“I am not a simpleton or child Drake!” Damian hissed. “I do not belong at Gotham Academy!”

“B and Selina think you do.”

“I have found actual proof though, we should investigate.”

“I’ll read over the evidence and tell you today after school if we’ll go. But you have to be in school or else Dick will have your head.”

“Grayson and Kori went to the JL today for the doctors,” Damian said.

“So?”

“So I believe Kori is pregnant,” Damian said. “She’s being so unusually happy and cheerful, and Grayson is being more affectionate with her.”

“I though Dick was going on a trip to Newark with Jason today?”

“I did as well until I heard the ZetaTube today.”

“Why were you in the Cave and not at school!?” Tim sputtered.

“I have free period third hour, I had thought to look in on the DNA test,” Damian shrugged.

“Alfred’s going to change that on you,” Tim stated. Alfred Pennyworth did not permit them to have free hours in school, ever, Damian would find he was no exception.

“It was PE, I cannot actually participate in the class!” Damian grumbled.

“Valid, but you still have school so get out of my office Dami, I have work to do, I’ll read over your report!” Tim stated. “And I have lunch with B so don’t think he won’t find out about you ditching PE.”

Damian rolled his eyes as he grabbed his bag and stalked out of the office.

Tim groaned as he slumped back in his seat. Damian and him were on better terms; Damian no longer attempted to stab him every week, and he had grown more tolerant of Damian’s forceful personality. But they still clashed despite their working together more frequently as of late. Setting aside his papers he rubbed his face and picked up his phone to call his friend.

“Hey! I heard a little birdy dial the phone!” the answer on the first ring.

“How fast can you get to Gotham?”

“What’s up?”

“Metropolis questions again,” Tim said just then there was a knock on his window which had him smiling at Kon floating there. Opening the window he hung up as Kon stepped in.

“What about Metropolis?” he asked.

“I thought you were at work,” Tim said.

“Investigative journalism,” Kon pointed out. “Besides, I have lunch plans with Bart and Jaime, so I’m having a field day. Clark’s thrilled; though he’s mad about being editor instead of journalist now.”

“I have something for you to investigate,” he said holding up Dami’s folder. “An old tie to you.”

“Project Cadmus? It’s shut down from when Wally and Dick rescued me.” he sputtered. “What about it?”

“Well, I haven’t read Dami’s report fully but the genetic research company of Luthor’s is missing, as a whole, but here,” he pulled up the finances of the fraction of Lex Corp he had acquired recently. “There’s massive payments for a project Beyond to Project Cadmus. I’m not finding anything else, I told Dami I’d read over his findings but you know more about Cadmus than I do.”

“Tim, you know everything,” Kon joked.

Tim smiled weakly.

“I’ll dig, call you up before school lets out to give you answers,” Kon said with a salute as he opened the window again and flew off.

* * *

 

Naomi McDuffie sat in the back row of the van, beside Duke Thomas and David Zavimbe, and she listened as Jefferson Peirce gave them a tour of Metropolis. Well, she half listened.

Naomi had met Batman once, and she had found him to be uptight and controlling while having a condescending attitude about everyone. He made her feel like a five year old with her hand caught in the cookie jar; not a pleasant feeling.

And yes, she knew that she was on a trip with a bunch of other JL protegees so she was aware of who was who. Raquel and Virgil were from Freeland, and she knew that they weren’t Bats. And the fact that she had never seen a Hispanic girl in the group of various Bats meant that Lorena was not a bat. Which left her with Duke Thomas and David Zavimbe, the Signal and the Night. She didn’t know who was who, but she had an educated guess because of Tabloid exploits. Duke was probably Signal, and David was probably Night.

They were not like what she was expecting of the Bats. Batman was such an imposing, dangerous human that Naomi had felt a twinge of fear crossing paths with him. She did not get that vibe from Duke or David though.

Duke seemed very laid back, chill, good people and good natured. David seemed haunted, a bit skittish, but when he had joked with Duke he seemed more relaxed and happy. Especially when they were ripping apart Tabloid articles. Duke and David were not what she would expect from the worlds most dangerous humans; and yes, she knew that’s what they were because of Superman. Superman had been very honest and said that the Bats, as a whole, would be the most dangerous group of humans she or anyone would ever encounter.

Duke was actually kind of cute too, very handsome. David seemed to be composed of harsher angles, sharper lines, but still handsome.

Naomi stared out the window; Metropolis was very… bright. She had read the entire city was solar powered with the glass, and that most cars ran off of magnets to get where they needed. They also had a massive electromagnetic subway system.

“Damn,” Duke muttered.

“What’s the matter? Bats nocturnal!?” she teased.

“There’s no perches!” David and Duke balked.

She blinked. “What?”

“No perches! No hooks for out grappling hooks, man this blows,” Duke muttered.

“No vigilante activity will be conducted on this trip,” Jefferson’s voice sliced through the van then.

“What if it’s an emergency?” Raquel asked.

“Metropolis has the best police force in the world, they will take care of it,” Jefferson stated.

“Uh… actually, Gotham does!” Duke piped up.

“What?” Virgil and Raquel spun in their seats on them.

“Yeah, most of the cops in Gotham are former SEALs, Delta, JSOC, PJs, and police corruption is at an all time low, with everyone in the Red Hood’s pocket now rather than double dipping for other gangs.”

“You say they aren’t corrupt but say they’re working for the Hood,” Virgil stated.

“Red Hood is actually a good guy,” Duke defended.

“The best,” David agreed.

“Gotham also has the highest gang violence in the country, surpassing Freeland and Chicago, and has the highest death rate in the country with the most shootings a day.”

“We have the lowest mortality rate and the best medical programs in the country though, along with the most alternative power other than Metropolis.”

“You cannot trade off the facts,” Jefferson said.

“I don’t know, they’re all facts,” Naomi stated.

“Gotham is a shithole,” Anissa stated.

“Freeland ain’t much better!” Raquel snapped. “The highest police corruption and massive gang violence. It’s impossible to walk down the street and not worry about a cop or gang banger stopping you to shoot you.”

“Well, you still get shot in Gotham, but we have better doctors and first responders,” David pointed out.

Naomi said nothing.

Naomi had grown up in a safe suburb in Port Oswego, Oregon. She hadn’t ever been in a dangerous situation until Superman and Mongul showed up fighting as they had been across the country. It was a sleepy little fishing town really, and quaint. Nothing ever happened sort of town. Sure, there was petty crime but she had never once feared for her life from cops or gangs. There were no gangs in Port Oswego. In fact the scariest crime to happen there in seventy years was an out of hand rivalry between fishermen which had lead to one getting eaten by a shark. She had a rather sheltered outlook on the world, despite the news and despite Zumbado. She was safe, she was loved, and she had never feared for her safety.

For that she was blessed.

Yeah, she got teased for not looking like her parents, but she was loved, wanted, blessed, she had friends, she had family. That was all she really needed in this world, especially after all she had learned from her home Earth.

Greg and Jen were the best parents she could ever ask for.

“What’s the matter?” Duke asked next to her.

“I guess I just don’t have an argument here,” she shrugged. “I grew up in a sleepy little fishing town in Oregon, I’ve never feared the Sheriff or a cop, I’ve never stood toe to toe with gang bangers, or had to worry about being shot when I’m walking down the street. So I guess I just never had to worry about it or think about it. You guys are just talking about something very scary very casually like it’s an everyday thing.”

“It’s not every day you get shot in Gotham, sometimes you get stabbed,” Duke chuckled. “Sorry, bad joke. Honestly, I’ve never feared the cops, not since Red Hood’s reign of terror taking over the corruption. At least now it’s in my brother’s hands, and though B doesn’t like it, Hood is a safer person to rely on than the previous Kingpins of the city. Hood’s at least got morality, and rules, and he’s a good guy despite how terrifying he is. As to gangs, yeah, but I grew up in the hood, they’re normal, they’re just people trying to get by and life didn’t work in their favor or they couldn’t get out. It’s hard to get out, to break the confines of what everyone else is doing when you don’t know anything else in life. It’s also really scary.

“But B’s helping out the city, we’ve opened up Community Centers and Safe Havens for teens and children, Hood’s no harming kid’s rule makes them real safe. There’s also the laws, and the changing mindset of Gotham, CPS and GCPD are no longer as corrupt. CPS is still scary but there’s now stricter background checks and vetting systems in Gotham so a lot of foster kids are lucky and end up in good homes or safe group homes.

“It’s fine you haven’t had those worries though, you’re lucky. We do what we do because we’ve all been terrified of our own streets and we’re trying to make it safe. We are kind of doing it for selfish reasons, but you’re doing it for selfless reasons which makes you, like Superman, a more valiant hero. We’re the heroes of necessity who fight in the mud and blood; we’re not the good guys always, you’re the hero the world needs to look to for hope of better tomorrows.”

“I guess I never thought of it that way,” Naomi admitted.

“Of course.” Duke nodded.

“But you guys seem to bring about the greatest change,” Naomi said calmly. “You obviously change perceptions and make statements to the world because of where you’re from. I think it’s impressive.”

“Thanks.”

“Here’s the hotel,” Jefferson said.

Naomi gaped at the sparkling Hilton they pulled up to. It was so pretty, just like everything else in Metropolis. “This truly is the city of tomorrow,” she mused in wonder.

“I want to go home, I miss fog,” David muttered.

“We’ve barely been here for an hour, David,” Duke stated.

“I miss grime. Too clean here, we should go home,” David stated.

“Dude you wanted to go on this trip yesterday!” Duke protested.

“I change my mind. I’ll go to Princeton,” David stated.

“Come on, we’re checking in.” Anissa said. Grace kissed Anissa before disappearing with the van. Jefferson guided them to the front desk. Naomi stared in awe at the beautiful lobby. No doubt this was one of the more practical hotels in the city, but she’d been to a Hilton before; when her house was getting fumegated, and it was not nearly this… glittery or elegant.

The entire design played off of golds and cream colors with rich dark woods. It was beautiful, and elegant. She saw a few pictures of Superman, and the other members of the Superfamily zipping around the skies.

She paused in front of a picture of all of them there. Superman was smiling, there was a young boy who was maybe ten standing in front of him, with a grumpy teen boy beside him and a beautiful blonde teen.

‘Superman, Superboy I, Superboy II, and Supergirl’ photo by Jimmy Olsen the caption read. This was amazing!

“Why do they do that?” Raquel muttered. “I mean stopping to pose for a family portrait; seems arrogant and like painting a target on everyone.”

“They’re Supers,” Virgil shrugged. “They’re Gods next to us mortals.”

“That’s just great, especially with New Krypton proving just that,” Raquel rolled her eyes.

“They’re just people, lots of power, but they’re people all the same,” Duke shrugged.

“Alright, so I have your rooms, you will be sharing. Boys will stay in boys rooms, girls stay in girls rooms. There will be a piece of tape on the doors; do not think you can slip by me without noticing. That is not a challenge Duke and David.”

Naomi snickered at the pointed look Jefferson was giving the two Bats, both boys looked mildly insulted.

“We will be going to the Museum of Science today, so put away your things and meet back here in a half an hour. We have been invited to dinner with Lex Luthor to talk about Metropolis University, which is home to the most advanced Physics department.”

“What about writing?” Raquel piped up.

“We will be touring a lot of schools Raquel.”

“What do we need to wear for dinner?” Naomi asked.

“It will be business casual, and you will be on your best behavior. Go unpack, we leave in a half an hour for the Museum,” Jefferson said as he handed out the keys. “Ah, Lorena, nice of you to join us.”

Naomi turned in time to see the King of Atlantis looming over a lean Hispanic girl, with a wide smile and sparkling brown eyes.

“Your majesty,” Jefferson said with a slight bow.

“Can the your majesty crap,” the king dismissed. “I’m sure you’ll have everything underhand Jefferson, Lorena will be on her best behavior. Thanks for doing this.”

“Not a problem at all,” Jefferson said.

“I’ll see ya when this is over kid,” the king ruffled the girl’s hair before walking away. Just like that, a man as huge as the Rock was gone. She was shocked at the whirlwind of energy the king had presented and disappeared with. “Oi, Wayne kid, remind your pops we have a meeting tomorrow.”

“I’ll remind him,” David said stiffly before the King left.

“Whoa,” Naomi blinked a few times rapidly before getting on the elevator to go to her room.


	4. Kongamato

Tim looked over the file from Conner as they sat together at a rooftop restaurant in Metropolis. These were fairly popular in hopes of sighting a fleeting glance at Superman, or any other member of the Superfamily which resided in Metropolis.

“So they’re doing it,” he muttered as he reached over for his expresso. He knew that he had told Duke and David he wouldn’t drag them or Damian into this; as a promise for them to keep their trip and him to keep his coffee. But this report was disturbing.

“According to the Genome populace it is.” Conner said softly. “Reports of Earth animal and human cloning attempts are being done with various degrees of success.”

“Disturbing,” Tim muttered as he looked at some of the photos Conner had added to the file. Mostly of human babies, lambs, calves.

“The problem is the acceleration,” Conner said.

“But… with you?”

“That was different,” Conner shrugged. “Kryptonian DNA is more easily manipulated, our people stopped doing… it, the natural way generations back. Genetic manipulation is a standard for Kryptonians, which has made their DNA malleable to certain manipulations. Same with their animals.”

“That’s disturbing” Tim muttered.

Conner shrugged. “Depends on how you look at it. Krypton is a culture where people are born with a particular role to fulfill, there are no extras, homeless, or useless. It’s like ants or bees, everyone born is assigned purpose, you’re genetically created and tailored for your purpose. It makes it all simple and difficult.”

“But with…”

“That’s where my family deviated. Apparently before Krypton’s demise Jor-El loaded a genetic key into C’s DNA, after making his infertile wife, Lor-El carry their young, naturally; which was something not done for centuries on Krypton. With the factors of a naturally sired child, encoded with Krypton’s DNA key, C and my family are the closest to the baseline natural Kryptonians in centuries. Except his cousins because they were done the tradition Kryptonian way.

“So, when you properly go to make a Kryptonian clone, it’s difficult at best with C because he’s got so much genetic information than normal ones do. So when Cadmus created me the splicing of Kryptonian and human DNA was both beneficial and detrimental. Normal Kryptonians grow and accelerate at a rate much quicker than humans, it’s why my age manipulation was so complete. Cadmus wanted me to be seventeen they could do it.

“Now the same isn’t to be said with human DNA; though you are discovering many things which will lead to a Kryptonain standard with gene therapy and gene play on fetus creation. However, as you are still close to the baseline of human start, your DNA is difficult to manipulate; despite many thousands of years of evolution on your side.

“To accelerate a human baby’s growth rate would take serious work,” Conner said. “They don’t have it yet.”

“Yet?”

“Yeah, there’s another study being done by Cadmus about Lazarus Pits and their full affects.”

“Wonderful, just what we need,” Tim grumbled. Jason would be thrilled to hear this.

“The League of Assassins already successfully synthesized it, so studies into it are heavily underway according to these documents,” Conner said handing Tim the studies from his Genome contacts. “A good portion of the synthesized Lazarus Pit has never been recovered though, I have no idea who would have it.”

“I have a good idea of who’d have that,” Tim admitted. “I just don’t know why they’d have a use for it.”

“Oh.”

“Luthor has some serious labs here,” Tim observed.

“No one can get in there, and I can’t see in. It’s encased in lead, it also goes too deep for me to fully and properly see it. I can as C about it, but he’s busy lately.”

“No, I’ll check it out,” Tim dismissed.

“Check what out?” a new aristocratic voice asked.

“None of your business Dami. And for the love of Alfred’s cookies why are you here?” Tim asked as he closed the files and rubbed his brow. Dinner was quickly losing appeal now.

“I was concerned when Jon said you were meeting up with Conner,” Damian sneered.

“Go away shorty, go practice making out with your pillow or something,” Conner dismissed Damian.

Damian gave a variant of an angry cat sound which squeaked startling all three of them to stare at Damian.

“Well… will you look at that? The imposter is hitting puberty, finally,” Conner snickered.

Tim burst into laughter then as Damian’s face turned red in frustration and embarrassment. “About time! I was thinking Ra’s might’ve made him a eunuch!”

Damian glared at them and Tim laughed harder at his brother’s expense. The snot nosed brat had hit puberty, it was going to be entertaining now.

“Thanks for this Conner,” Tim said.

“No problem, but if you’re going to go about poking around this then I have to insist that you be careful. We won’t act because Luthor’s Kryptonite stores have vanished and until we locate them we aren’t keen on poking around it.”

“No, it’s good. This is looking more like an us problem than you for a change.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Project Beyond, I’ve seen that in our files. I don’t remember where but I think it’s a family issue, we’ll look into it,” Tim assured his friend as he stood.

“Alright, stay safe bird boy,” Conner said as they had a hug and walked away. Tim dragged Damian with him. Despite his little brother being larger than him already, Tim had no patience for the Dami nonsense going on today.  They were in the elevator before Tim glanced up at Dami.

“So, squeaky, how did you get here without B noticing?”

“Father had previous engagements, and Jon and I had plans,” Damian dismissed.

“Spying is not plans,” Tim retorted.

“It’s not like I chased down Jason,” Damian defended.

“No, Jay would just shoot you where I have to put up with you,” Tim muttered.

“We have an invitation to attend Luthor’s dinner with our brothers,” Damian said.

“No, no we do not,” Tim stated glaring up at Damian. “It may be a shock to you, little brother, but that trip is not yours to go on. That trip is a reprieve from you for Duke and David.”

“That is unfair,” Damian stated.

“No, what’s unfair is them working their asses off for this trip and college tours and gaining Jefferson’s support to go on these tours only for their little brother to steal it!” Tim stated.

Damian frowned. “I am just as hard working and smart as they are.”

“Evidently not.”

“What are you saying!?” Damian snapped.

“The trip is not for you.”

“Well the dinner is.”

“No, it’s not.”

“We’re going.”

“No, we’re not.”

“Yes, we are.”

They both paused in the lobby of the building as they saw the news. There had been an unprecedented uptick in power surges through out the United States, particularly in the south east as of late. There had been a slaughtering in New Orleans, the French Quarter, according to the news.

It was unsettling, the few JL members a part of the supernatural world and worked with magic said there was something big happening. A big player had come onto this plane, though who no one seemed to know, but it was emboldening the supernatural community, as more and more of the supernatural was revealed. Today’s footage was of last night’s Vampire attack, which had killed over a hundred people on the streets. There was a bloody shaky camera footage from a kid’s phone, which showed the Vampires attacking when a slight, small figure walked onto the street. Tim examined the footage as the figure walked forward, there were figures behind this figure, but no one seemed to move. A Vampire darted forward when the figure’s hand moved and tore through the Vampire’s chest; it’s heart rested on the smaller figure’s hand before it was crushed and the Vampire dropped to the ground.

“Disgusting,” Damian sneered.

There was nothing more of the footage as it froze on the lone slight figure. Tim could see it was a girl, dressed in a long trench coat, long hair, jeans, and there was a glowing set of dots where eyes would be with what appeared to be blue and pink lights wrapping around her hands. Magic.

“The supernatural is something that has always been here, they predate most of us humans. They’ve always hung in the shadows according to Zachary. Lately though they’ve made their presence known, it’s unusual, thousands of years hiding and now they’re making a big push to the surface,” Tim muttered.

“Grandfather always said the supernatural only followed and respected power,” Damian said.

“Maybe their recent activity is tied to the power surges,” Tim observed. Something big was moving across the country, it was unsettling because they didn’t have information on the supernatural anymore. Fate, Zatanna, and Zachary were the main sorcerers in the JL and the main source of intel, but they were so busy and Constantine was missing that there was no way to know what was happening with the supernatural really.

“I wish we had Raven still, she’d know what was going on,” Damian admitted.

“Raven was a linchpin in the supernatural, all JL magic members have had their hands full since her death. Zach said there was a vacuum for power with her death in the supernatural world, few people held the power she did.”

“Maybe this new thing is the new player for power?”

“Maybe, I’ll continue gathering intel before deciding how to act.”

“Now we must prepare for dinner,” Damian stated.

“Damian! NO!” Tim yelled as he ran after his much taller and larger little brother. Tim was so not ready to deal with Damian bullshit. He wasn’t.

Damian, unlike all his other brothers could not be reasoned with.

* * *

 

Naomi walked into the lobby after the museum tours, dressed in a simple sundress her mother had given her, with her hair pulled up in an elegant twist, and only mascara applied. She didn’t know what to expect, but she was curious as to what was going to happen.

Lex Luthor, the only man richer than Bruce Wayne himself, and known foe of Superman, the Justice League and any respectable authority. She didn’t know what was going to happen at dinner.

Which brought her to the lobby.

Raquel and Lorena were still getting ready for the dinner; Raquel had to take a call though and Lorena was struggling with surface clothing again. Naomi had wondered about her two new roommates but hadn’t found the time to properly talk to them or get to know them, though she supposed there was always after dinner when they were locked in their rooms for the night after curfew.

“Well, no,” Duke said walking out of the elevator, focused on tying his tie as he talked on the phone perched between his head and shoulder. “Dami wasn’t invited. No, it’s not about that. No. No. I refuse to have shorty here. No it is not about reputation. He’s fifteen. No. No amount of pleading or begging will make me change my mind, Tim. No. Absolutely not. No. It’s a college tour, Tim, with Jefferson Peirce. And when the hell do you think I’ll have time to do that!?”

Naomi stopped his struggles as he argued on the phone and took his tie in her hands. Duke gave her a questioning look but she proceeded to expertly tie the knot. Naomi had mastered the tie when she was five, because her father could not tie his tie and her mother insisted it was a vital skill. Also, it was something of a ritual between herself and her father.

“No Tim. I said no. I will not. No. Not even if you get Uncle C to come after us. No. Go talk to Conner about it. You did? Well what did he find? Is that so? No. Just No. I’ll talk to you later, we have dinner with Luthor. I’m aware Tim. I will not rub that in his face, do I look as suicidal as you?” Duke asked.

Naomi chuckled as she tightened his tie a bit and stepped back to admire her handiwork. Duke mouthed ‘thank you’ to her.

“Talk to Jason. Well that’s just great, how’d Alina take that? Really? I’m surprised is all, you know how she worships him. Well obviously. The flock will be fine without him. So will B. Look I’m serious, Tim, I gotta go. Don’t call David about it, no. I’m serious. If you do that I will burn your private stash of coffee, with Alfred’s approval. Julia will help me even. I bet she has some lovely teas for you to try. I would. I so would. If you ruin this trip for us I will ruin your life for the remainder of the year. Yes. Good. Talk to you later,” he said and hung up.

“Thanks,” he smiled at her.

“No problem, it was a bit odd tying a tie for a stranger though,” she admitted.

“I can’t ever tie them. Alfred even gave me many lessons about it,” Duke bashfully confessed. She found him adorable which had her smiling as she leaned on the post. Duke was old school cool, at least from what she had seen of him. He was a very quiet, serious man, and he had this air about him which was complete swagger and class.

“So who’s Tim?” she asked.

“My brother.”

“Do you… are there a lot of you?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, I mean, sort of. Selina’s working on curbing B’s adopting impulses.”

“Why?”

“Well, there’s…” Duke started counting on his fingers and concentrating seriously then. “Forget it, I have to say it out loud to keep it all straight,” he dismissed with a wave then.

“Okay, so tell me.”

“Don’t you read the tabloids?”

“Only when I’m standing in the check out line in the grocery store, and even then, only the covers.”

“Oh, so you’re a novice to Wayne antics!?” he asked with glee.

“I guess.”

“Alright! There’s Dick, Jason, Cass, Tim, David, me, Damian, Alina, Terry, Helena, Bruce Jr., and Thomas; that’s B’s kids, there’s Dick’s daughter Mar'i, and his wife Kori And’r. Jason’s kind of Lian’s second dad, we count her in the family too because she’s always chasing after Terry, Helena, and Mar'i; they’re all the same age. We also have Stephanie, who’s Tim and Cass’s best friend, she’s family. There’s Babs and her husband Luke Fox too, they’re sort of family. And there’s aunt Kate; but I don’t like her, she’s a bitch.”

“Whoa, that’s a huge family,” Naomi blinked; she hadn’t ever paid attention to the Waynes, but with a family that prominent and large she could see why the media obsessed about them.

“We also have Alfred and his daughter Julia, they’re family too,” Duke admitted.

“That’s a lot of siblings.”

“Tell me about it, my youngest brothers are a year old, barely and I have to change their diapers, while my eldest brother is probably expecting his second kid already,” he admitted. “Don’t tell anyone I told you that, apparently no one is supposed to know yet.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” she chuckled.

“What about you?”

“Well, I’m an orphan, I was adopted by two amazing people, and I have no siblings. And my mom is the only human in the house but wields the most powers.”

“Moms do that,” Duke nodded solemnly at that.

“What about your mom?”

“My mom was from Haiti, we were relocated with Hurricane Georges, refugees in ninety-eight, we landed in Gotham and they were killed in the Riddler Wars. Selina though is also my mom, and she’s amazing, kicks ass, takes names, no nonsense. She’s got us all in line, even Talia is becoming fond of us, which is just weird. I’m waiting for the day Selina kicks Talia’s butt.”

“Sounds like you were very blessed.”

“I was,” Duke grinned.

“Hey?”

“Hm?”

“You’re a part of the upper class society, what should I expect at a dinner like this?”

“I’m what?”

“You’re the elite society, being a Wayne and all.”

“Well… I wouldn’t say that. B makes us volunteer and do normal chores and stuff.”

“I figure, but you’ve been to fancy events like this,” Naomi said.

“Oh! That part of being elite upper class! Sorry, um… nothing out of the ordinary. I doubt Luthor go to extremes, he’s expecting a bunch of uneducated ruffians at best, but Luthor thinks that about everyone beneath him. He’s only doing this dinner to better his public image for when he runs for president, so just eat inwards, you’ll be fine,” Duke dismissed.

“None of what you said made any sense.”

“Well… it’s kind of a family mission of ours to drive Luthor batty,” Duke grinned. “Terry purposely acts like a hellion when we have to have Luthor at social functions, he covered Luthor in spaghetti sauce from Spaghetti O’s last time. Helena also got powdered sugar on him, and Mar'i lit him on fire accidentally last time. Though I think Jay put them up to it,” Duke snickered.

“That’s terrible!”

“He started it,” Duke defended. “Besides, it’s hard to feel sorry for him. He’s an ass.”

“He’s hosting this big dinner for us,” she protested.

“You know who he is, and therefore you know what he’s capable of and what he’s done, I’m sorry Naomi but I have very little sympathies for the man. Especially after every insult he’s dealt my family, I have no compunction with Jay siccing our younger siblings on someone horrible.”

“Who’s your favorite sibling?” Naomi asked.

Duke mocked outrage as he gripped his chest. “You dare assume I have a favorite!? Cass, but I mean I love them all equally, they’re family. Cass. A thousand times Cass.” He said.

“What am I chopped liver?” David asked appeared.

“Yes. Yes you are.”

“Timothy called.”

“The answer is no.”

“I said we would be happy to have him but sadly not Demion,” David stated primly.

“I like that one, that one’s good,” Duke said holding up his fist for his brother to bump. “You gotta tell Jay that one when we call him tonight.”

Naomi giggled over their brotherly affection. “So siblings are for tormenting each other and ganging up on one another?”

“Obviously, until it’s an annoying war, then we dibs Jay, he wins,” David stated easily.

Duke smiled at his brother’s statement. “Besides, everyone picks on Demion, it’s tradition to humble his royal majesty.”

“Ah yes, the first born blood son, we must all bow in his presence,” David said with an exaggerated mock bow.

“We must worship the ground beneath his feet,” Duke stated.

“That’s ridiculous,” Naomi chuckled.

“Hence the nicknames to humble the shorty’s ginormous ego,” Duke stated.

“Pipsqueak is very annoying and his voice has not broken yet.”

“When it does we will endeavor to call him Squeaky, Jay already decided that.”

“I like it!” David grinned.

“That’s horrible.”

“She clearly has never met Prince Damian,” David deduced.

“The lucky never do.”

“Ah yes, I remember life BD,” David sighed. “Before Damian.”

“It was bliss,” Duke sighed.

“You two are horrible,” Naomi laughed.

“We weren’t, then we got adopted into this insane family and stuff happens,” Duke shrugged.

“Alright, listen up people,” Jefferson said as the other kids filed into the lobby. Naomi noticed now that most of these kids weren’t kids. She, Virgil, and Lorena looked about seventeen, but Duke and David looked about nineteen or twenty, while Raquel looked more refined and adult than any of them despite her young face. It was dawning on Naomi now just how few heroes she knew in the hero community or how their personal lives were affected. Bats were obviously a family unit, she could see that. Virgil; Static Shock, had always been this big solo hero before something happened and he was working with Black Lightning, Thunder, and Lightning. Raquel worked with some guy who media had dubbed ‘Black Superman’ until it was revealed he was Icon and had few things in common with Superman. And as to Lorena, Naomi could honestly say she knew nothing about the Aquatic members of the JL, or even the Atlantean Royal Family. It was odd.

There were so many units, families who knew who they had to rely on, and knew how to handle themselves in whatever situation they were in.

She felt so very far from their league that she was wondering if she had any right to be a ‘superhero’. These were people with training, with mentors, help, units of people to rely on, behind the scenes people to gather intel and keep up with the criminals. She did not.

Her dad was great, but she knew that he wasn’t a hero in the sense of signing up for the JL quality. He couldn’t train her to use her powers, and neither could her mom. She was just sort of winging it and she was lucky no one had gotten hurt in her winging it attempts. Did she truly belong here? With these heroes?

Naomi pondered that as Jefferson spoke of Metropolis, and it’s history, along with Lex Luthor’s history. She tuned it out though as she pondered her place in this group of heroes.

Naomi didn’t have definitive answers for where she belonged in the hero community.

She just wanted to help people, to use the abilities she had for good, for the sake of people who needed aid and even those who didn’t. Did this make her qualified to be a hero? She pondered this as she stared out the window of the van.

Before meeting these people she’d have said yes.

But in a day she had heard such tragedies and pain that now she didn’t know.

Was it needed for a Superhero to have suffered to be considered a hero?

* * *

 

Duke walked out onto the penthouse and frowned as he was greeted by two figures he had explicitly told ‘NO’ to. Duke’s phone rang, which had him glancing at the caller ID before answering as David stalked over to greet Tim and Damian.

“If I asked you to help me dispose of two brothers could you pull it off?” Duke asked blandly.

“Sodium Hydroxide in a plastic bin, Google it,” Jason replied tersely.

“Great, which arteries do I go for to kill the demon brat and Timmy so it’s not so messy?”

“The fuck you asking for?” Jason demanded.

“Cause I’m looking at them after telling them both no,” Duke stated.

“That’s your own problem, leave me the fuck out of it,” Jason warned.

“Then why are you calling?” Duke asked.

“Because I need a favor, while you’re on tour. You’ll be going to D.C. and Georgetown, when you have a minute I need you to bug the Egyptian Embassy,” Jason said.

“What?”

“I’m looking into something,” Jason defended.

“Dude, bugging an Embassy will get me thrown in jail.”

“Not if your careful,” Jason retorted.

“Oh, thanks, that’s encouraging,” Duke rolled his eyes.

“Excellent, knew I could count on you glowstick,” Jason replied before hanging up.

Jason, since Raven’s death, had sort of closed him off. Before Jason was an emotional person, despite the anger, sarcasm and general bitterness towards living life, he was a jovial and carefree man before. There was this devil may care attitude about Jason which had always been a driving force in his personality. But since Raven’s death, the Joker, Bane, and everything in between something had shifted in his elder brother. Jason was more controlled, he was still devil may care and rather easy going, but he was controlled, his emotions, his actions, his speech, something about him had just shut down and he was controlled. He still commanded attention and respect; but because of his shut down control in his emotions now he was often times the impersonator for the Bat.

Especially for JL meetings because Jay could dredge up that seeped in Gotham’s docks, smokers, chest voice that B had created to disguise his natural voice, better than Dick could.

Duke sighed as he walked towards his group.

“I didn’t know your brothers were joining us,” Jefferson said tightly.

“We did not invite them,” David said firmly, glaring at Tim and Damian. Tim looked extremely put out, while Damian preened.

“Jay’s on our side if we decide to dispose of them,” Duke whispered to David.

“It is always a pleasure to accommodate the Waynes,” Luthor said tightly as he walked forward, holding out his hand to shake it.

“Yeah, whatever,” Duke rolled his eyes as he shoved his hands in his pockets and brushed by Luthor. Luthor; the last charity function; had had the audacity to tell Duke to his face not to take offence to being Bruce’s pity case. Things were frosty until Mar'i sneezed and her powers accidently blasted Luthor in the ass. Duke was still ninety percent sure that Jason and Dick had orchestrated that. “I thought I said no.”

“I was for the no,” Tim stated. “Damian, no matter the language seems incapable of understanding the word no.”

“I understood it. I ignored it.”

“Which is why we didn’t want you,” David snapped.

Damian blinked then.

“This, this trip Dami, is for David and I, not you, we earned it, and worked very hard to get it,” Duke snapped. “This trip, is not for you. You are still at Gotham Academy.”

“And I do not belong in that school with those entitled imbeciles.”

“Careful, kongamato, you’re chopping your nose off to spite your face,” David warned.

“I am not!”

“You are,” Duke and Tim stated simultaneously.

“We have an important case!”

“We do not,” Tim sighed in exasperation.

“Why are you here then?” Duke snapped at Damian.

“Project Beyond,” Damian answered readily.

“Shove it up you…” David started.

“Shall we begin with dinner?” Jefferson asked.

“What’s a kong… whatever you called him?” Duke whispered as he and David walked for the dinner table.

“Kongamato, in the it is a… flying reptile?” David said. “I think that’s a close description in English, I will explain later.”

“Like a pterodactyl? Befitting.”

“I thought as much,” David nodded in satisfaction as they both saw Damian sulking. Duke rolled his eyes before taking a seat by Naomi. He didn’t like dismissing any of his brothers out of hand, but Damian had more ego than an emperor; still. According to Dick and Tim he was getting better with the added humility of Gotham Academy and Jason knocking him down a few pegs every time they crossed paths.

“So they’re your brothers? Which ones!?” Naomi asked giddily.

“Huh, oh! The short pale one who looks like he’s suffering from sleep deprivation is Tim, and the tall, entitled looking jackass here to attempt to take over this trip is Damian.”

“Oh… you’re not happy about seeing them?” Naomi guessed with a cringe.

“Nope.”

“Why not? I mean if I had a sibling I would always want to hang out and do things, it’d be like always having a best friend!”

“That’s not how it works. Siblings are… like Thor and Loki; best friends and worst enemies, but God help anyone who’s not family who comes to pick on you ‘cause they got your back. Even when they’ve pissed you off,” Duke muttered the last bit under his breath as he glared at Damian. Damian looked unabashed by his actions.

* * *

 

Lex Luthor was not a man to fear anyone. However, he would admit he was unsettled sitting next to one of the Wayne children. He had terrible luck with the horde of Wayne children, including his recent cloning experiment. He would have to speak to Mercy about it’s disposal as they started the project over.

“The University of Metropolis is offering the best physics department in the world, with the aid of New Krypton’s Ambassador Professor, Val-Zod.”

“Tell me, does it unsettle you to have so many… aliens on earth now, Luthor?” a young woman with many braids and gold clips in her hair asked. Her tawny gaze was fierce.

“On the contrary, I am a supporter of welcoming displaced life to our planet and boarders,” he lied. He was looking into making his Kryptonite stores into a weapon similar to the Nuclear Bomb just in case New Krypton ever decided they wanted to attack.

“Despite your many altercations with Superman and his associates?” the young man with dreadlocks asked.

“There are new threats facing us in this day in age, I hardly think false ancient history is worth looking at,” Luthor stated coldly.

“So what are we doing here tonight?” a different girl asked; she was sharper around the face with dark hair in a pixy cut akin to Mercy’s.

0“We are here to have a nice dinner and discuss all the opportunities the University of Metropolis has for people like you,” he said.

“People like us?” the girl sneered in disgust. “You mean Black?”

“I mean less fortunate.”

“I would think you’d want to focus on the less fortunate here rather than from other cities Luthor, I have heard the Suicide Slums are getting out of control without the intervention of the Supers it would be a close second to Gotham in violence.” The Wayne next to him said calmly. This Wayne, Timothy had shark eyes; Luthor didn’t like it. Especially with the kid acquiring his company.

“The invitation of Mr. Peirce’s college tour group had nothing to do with race, agendas, or socioeconomic backgrounds,” he lied.

“But you just said those less fortunate, so why are we,” the other Wayne said, gesturing to himself and another. “Here?”

“Let us just have a nice dinner and talk about all the opportunities University of Metropolis holds for brightening the young minds of tomorrow.” He pleaded, cursing his unsettled nerves at having so many Waynes here. They were just like their father!

“So you would rather do a publicity stunt to appeal to a different demographic than to focus on the socioeconomic problems of your own city, am I understanding that correctly?” the girl with the pixie cut asked.

Luthor frowned into his drink when he saw Jefferson Peirce smirking at the question.


End file.
